Star Wars: Rescue of Palpatine
by Jerry Schuller
Summary: Fans can't decide whether Palpatine's capture in the "Clone Wars Animated Series" or his capture in the book "Labyrinth of Evil" is canon. This story will make then BOTH canon & takes place right after the cartoon and right before "Labyrinth of Evil"!


**Chapter 1**

Supreme Chancellor Palpatine sat quietly as Grievous sped away with him in his star cruiser. He then pulled the hood of his robes over his head allowing only the lower part of his face to be seen. He slowly entered the cockpit where General Grievous sat. "Grievous", he said.

The General turned his head around. "Lord Sidious!" he shouted with surprise and fright. "How did you get here?"

"It is of no concern at the moment" the dark lord answered. "This is entirely a ruse to lure the Jedi into my trap. Allow them to chase you to the coordinates I've given you. There, they will fall into an ambush by the droid starfighters. This attack on the capital is to merely weaken the Jedi and will be followed eventually by a second attack much worse than the first. I shall leave and return to Coruscant via an escape pod. Everyone will think the chancellor escaped his captors. When the time comes, I will send you to capture him again."

"But Lord Sidious…"

"You have your orders, Grievous. Just carry them out."

"Where's the Chancellor?"

Without answering, the dark lord opened the door to the escape pod, walked in, closed the door and waited.

**Chapter 2**

In their starfighters, Obi-Wan, Anakin and a squadron of clones persued General Grievous' ship into an orbital junkyard. This was a 20-kilometer wide field of junk composed of the hulls of broken down starships and other detached components in orbit with the planet.

They wove through and around the twisted wreckages as they attempted to keep as little distance as possible between them and Grievous. As they entered the center of the giant cloud of debris, the kidnapper's ship stopped. The Jedi along with their clone allies also stopped behind him. They waited in silence to see what his next move would be.

"I've got a very bad feeling about this!" said the lead clone officer breaking the silence.

Suddenly, coming to life and jumping out from within the space debris, came dozens of Vulture droid starfighters. R2-D2 screeched in panic from the droid socket in Anakin's Jedi starfighter.

"It's a trap!" shouted Obi-Wan into the comlink. Greatly outnumbered, the Jedi kicked their fighters into full speed. The clones followed suite. Reaching out with the Force, Skywalker and Kenobi flew with amazing agility and vaporized one enemy fighter after another. The clones not having the advantage of being trained in the Force, were soon hopelessly defeated.

Anakin began to feel fear and loose his connection with the Force. Anger then swelled in him. The anger lead to hate, and the hate lead him to begin drawing on the dark side.

-

Sidious sat with his eyes closed in the escape pod in Grievous' ship and could feel the hate swelling in Anakin as he fought outside to save himself from the separatist attackers. "Good! Good!" he said to himself smiling.

He opened his eyes and reached for the release lever. He pulled it and the escape pod hurled its way to the planet unnoticed by the preoccupied Obi-Wan and Anakin.

After seeing that the dark lord's escape pod had jettisoned, Grievous quickly made his own getaway. His ship rocketed away leaving the two Jedi behind to the mercy of the Vulture droids.

-

Only three attackers were left. "Master!" cried Anakin into the comlink. "I've got one tight on my tail. I can't shake it!"

"I've got my own problems" Obi-Wan replied with two fighters on his own tail. "Besides, you're the best starpilot in the galaxy! Since when do you need _my_ help?"

Anakin lead the Vulture droid toward the two behind Obi-Wan's fighter. Just as he was about to collide with them, he pulled back the steering yoke fully, allowing his ship to just miss the enemy droids causing his attacker to crash into them. He heard R2-D2 squeal in triumph as the enemy fighters exploded.

"You see? You didn't need my help after all", said Kenobi. "My starboard engine is fried."

"My shield generator is damaged and Grievous escaped with the Chancellor", Anakin said.

"We need to contact the Jedi temple and have them send reinforcements."

Just then, Yoda's image appeared on their communication screens. "Safe the chancellor is. Received a transmission from his escape pod we have. Now, return to the temple you must. For an important mission to Neimodia you must prepare."


End file.
